Untitled (SF-297; L. L274) 1987

Sam Francis made this unnamed print with lithography, a process as alive and risky as any painting. The overall sense is one of buoyant colour. Primary hues explode across the surface, with smaller specks and trails creating a sense of depth and movement. The white of the paper breathes through the composition, giving everything room to vibrate. Take, for example, the lower left corner, where red, yellow, and blue intertwine. Look at the way the colours bleed and mix, creating new shades and tones. It feels like a dance, spontaneous but also carefully considered. Francis's work reminds me a bit of Joan Mitchell's, in the sense that both artists harness colour and gesture to evoke emotion, yet somehow there is the sense that the works are built through layers of accident. This piece invites us to consider artmaking not as a means to an end, but as an ongoing, open-ended process.